New Bond girls Eva Green and Caterina Murino talk about their roles in the forthcoming film Casino Royale...

Getting To Know The Bond Girls
22nd October 2006

Caterina Murino may not have the longest screen-time of the girls in Casino Royale, but she's set to make an unforgettable entrance. "I'm on a beach in the Bahamas surrounded by sparkling green water, wearing a beautiful green bikini, while riding my horse. It's going to look great but I'm very afraid for my legs. Riding a horse without boots for too long is not good for them."

Fate almost meant that Murino missed joining the infamous list of ladies that have crossed paths with 007 on the big screen.

She explained, "It was very funny because the day before, I had an accident with a horse. I was preparing for an Italian movie, and I fell down. I broke a rib on my right side. I was in the hospital. I was completely under drugs. I went there to the casting, and I couldn't walk. It was unusual; the Bond girl is so full of energy, and I can't walk! But Martin Campbell called me back to go to London and do the same scene with him. And I got the role."

 

"When I read the script, 120 pages, there was only one f---ing horse, and it was mine. So I went back to riding horses. At first, it was just a small pony, just walking, because I am so afraid I am going to fall. I was shooting in the Bahamas for a month. For all month, I was riding a horse every day. I had a great teacher who pushed me every day to take off the fear. So everything you see is me. I don't use a stunt woman: I ride the horse on the beach with the green bikini."

 

She plays Solange, wife of one of the villains in the 21st James Bond film, and with 007 having a penchant for unavailable women (to save complications), the pair enjoy some passionate, if short lived, time together.

Murino described her character, "She's not the typical Bond Girl. She is a modern woman who is very sad because she's married to a very bad man. Then she meets James Bond, this very handsome guy who invites her for drinks. I tried to give some humanity to Solange."

"A lot of women have been hit by their husbands. I take revenge by sleeping with James Bond. Nice revenge! If all women who've been hit by their husbands can resolve in that way, it would be very nice."

"She ends up having great sex but unfortunately it's only for one night. But you don't see her with guns. My only action scenes are with my horse and maybe the sex scene."

But how did the new 007 fair in the love scenes? Murino spilled the beans, "I'd award him at least a nine-and-a-half out of ten for technique. His kiss would suggest he is a wonderful lover. Gentle, but not too gentle. Passionate, but not too forceful."

Eva Green plays Vesper Lynd, who is sent by London to keep tabs on 007 as he gambles the government's money with a terrorist financier.

"Shooting had already began in January this year", Green explained. "However until February I didn't know that I would get this role. So I had to fly to the Bahamas as fast as possible."

"I grew up with Bond but I didn't see all the films. They're pure entertainment and I enjoy watching them."

"This film will be much more realistic, dark and gloomy than previous films. Also, the tragic love story is unique because it shows how Bond loses all faith in women."

"[Daniel as Bond] is charming, dangerous and gentle at the same time. I always liked him as an actor. He's an unusual Bond, he gives the character a new dimension."

But she won't be hopping in to bed with Bond straight away in the film. Green explained, "It's a very special, unusual relationship between the two of them."

 

"Vesper is the only woman who really gets to Bond's heart. Vesper has been warned about Bond so she's quite reluctant when she meets him and is definitely on her guard. They're like boxing partners always sparring and jabbing at each other."

 

As with many of the cast members, the quality of the script secured her interest in the film. "I really fell in love with the part when I read the script. It's such an unusual script and one of the best I've read for a long, long time."

"So I'm trying to find her humanity and how to make her more human. I'm trying to find her fragilities. First we are really aggressive with each other but step by step we fall in love: intimate, gentle. We've never seen Bond this way. I'm sure girls will love this scene."

When filming was wrapping at Pinewood Studios in the UK a couple of months ago, Green described her last scenes in the hectic schedule, where she spent the day strung up in the air in a metal cage shooting a scene opposite Daniel Craig.

"I am stuck in an elevator. It's quite claustrophobic. The cage is shaking and it's quite frightening because I am scared of heights. We are going underwater at the end of the week! A lot of the time you are not really acting. You are just running, and people are trying to kill you.


Produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli (Eon Productions) and directed by Martin Campbell, CASINO ROYALE is scheduled for release November 17, 2006. Principal photography started on January 30th 2006, with locations in the UK, Czech Republic (Prague), Italy, and the Bahamas. It will be British actor Daniel Craig’s first outing as James Bond. He is the sixth actor to play the 007 role in the franchise.